The crackling explosions sounded as festive as New Year's firecrackers. Wu Tianzhen and Fatty, dual-wielding pistols, shot down one little friend after another, wishing they could play "Good Fortune Comes" right then and there to match the mood!
"Hey, watch Fatty's Monkey Scooping the Moon!" Fatty executed a deep lunge, his high-difficulty posture blasting a bell. His tone was utterly arrogant, "This Zhang family sacred land is truly excellent. My exercise regimen is definitely up to par. Fatty hereby designates this place as the 'Lucky Forward Zhang Family Sub-Arena.' Once Little Brother wakes up, we'll come here every day to rack up points!"
"What's the point of racking up points here? There's no fridge to take, is there?!" Wu Tianzhen was also getting a bit carried away. As they fired, they slowly advanced with Zhang Qiling and the Black Gold Ancient Saber, feeling no sense of danger whatsoever.
Just then, a colossal sound, as if from a great distance, faintly echoed, followed by violent tremors beneath their feet.
Wu Tianzhen and Fatty had already aimed their guns, but their feet suddenly slipped. The bullets they fired instantly veered off course, whistling past the very edge of the bronze bells!
"Holy crap!" Wu Tianzhen blurted out a classic curse, but no matter how loud his voice, it couldn't drown out the incredibly faint ringing of a bell—
"Ling—!"
The clear, melodious sound instantly filled the entire space. Under this tremor, the semi-transparent thin threads began to sway, one by one, layer by layer, like dominoes, causing the countless bronze bells attached to them to ring out!
Wu Tianzhen and Fatty's attempts to correct their aim froze in an instant. They maintained their bizarre forward-leaning postures, as if petrified, unmoving.
Under the sound, they were almost instantly pulled into an illusion!
Changbai's wind and snow raged, blinding their eyes. Beneath their feet was deep, cold snow, and needle-like ice particles lashed at their faces. Wu Tianzhen felt as if he had been plunged into the deep sea, unable to breathe for a moment.
Strange colored lights flickered before his eyes, and the sound of crackling snowflakes sinking into the earth filled his ears. He struggled to lift his head and saw the awe-inspiring, boundless bronze door in the distance!
...No, this is an illusion, this is not reality. They had already retrieved Little Brother, they had already—
Little Brother? Where is Little Brother?
Little Brother is inside the bronze door!!!
Wu Tianzhen's complex thoughts tumbled like clothes in a washing machine. For a moment, he felt he was in an illusion, and then he felt he was in reality.
He couldn't distinguish his location, only that his feet were still resolutely moving step by step towards that bronze door, pushing against the wind and snow to reach the damned threshold!
The icy chill climbed his body like a devil, freezing him from the bottom up. A layer of frost gradually spread across his face. He vaguely realized he was about to freeze to death on the vast Changbai Mountain.
But in the last moment before his consciousness faded, he still roared out that name.
"Zhang Qiling—!!!"
"Zheng—!!"
A sudden, piercing pain assaulted his ears, like the striking of a morning bell, the explosion of a bomb, the destruction of a supernova, the wail of a tsunami.
Wu Tianzhen was jolted awake by a sound that should not have been present in the Changbai Mountain blizzard. With a jolt, he violently tore his eyes open. As his vision cleared, he saw the familiar silhouette before him.
...Zhang Qiling.
He had regained a sliver of consciousness at some point. He managed to brace himself against the wall and stand up.
His back was straight, looking exactly as he had countless times before, shielding them. Yet, the body beneath the black clothes was still trembling, and wisps of blood were dripping down his hanging sleeves.
From his other hand, slightly extended from the black clothes, pale fingers were tightly clutching a dark green bronze bell.
The bell remained still, yet it strangely emitted waves of sound. Unlike the crisp ringing of ordinary bells, this sound was like the clang of swords and axes colliding.
And it was this resonant clang that jolted them out of their illusion.
Wu Tianzhen saw Fatty beside him also shudder. They exchanged glances and looked around—
They saw that the bronze bells, which had been interconnected, had instantly become still under the sound of this one bell. With a slow yet steady speed, they were gradually returning to their original positions.
...Could this be the mother bell that Zhang Haike mentioned?!
His heart still thrumming with shock, the sound abruptly ceased!
Zhang Qiling, who had been barely holding on, felt his fingertips tremble, and he forcefully extinguished the activation of the mother bell.
Fatty, agile, "crashed" over like a nimble cannonball and supported Zhang Qiling.
"Little Brother, how are you?"
He asked hurriedly, a strange sense of urgency and tension in his heart.
Truth be told, they hadn't spoken properly with Zhang Qiling for a long time, and Fatty was a bit out of practice interacting with Little Zhang.
...But Zhang Qiling looked up at him and said nothing.
His eyes, like black obsidian, were still as clear as ever, but the gaze he cast upon Fatty now held a subtle calmness.
Zhang Qiling slowly observed Fatty and Wu Tianzhen for a while, his gaze lingering on their faces. Soon, as if confirming something, he lowered his eyes again.
...These two people are a bit familiar. One of them is like Zhang Haike's human-skin mask.
...Are these the people I knew before?
Zhang Qiling felt he should be feeling emotional right now, but the overwhelming fatigue and pain left him with only emptiness. He closed his eyes briefly, feeling the familiar dizziness creeping back into his vision.
He slowly raised the hand holding the mother bell:
"...Use this."